112 OSTRICHES. 



been ascertained; by many it was supposed to be a 

 provision of nature, for supplying them with water, 

 living as they did in vast plains, where water was 

 not common; but as it is confined to the male, this 

 supposition seems to be erroneous, unless, when the 

 female is confined to her nest, her mate provides her 

 with water from this reservoir. 



1 Pouch oi the Bustard. 



We come now to the last tribe in the gallinaceous 

 order, consisting of birds altogether foreign, of very 

 peculiar habits: these, as far as wings and flight are 

 concerned, having scarcely a right to be classed 

 amongst birds, as they never quit the ground, and 

 know nothing of the power possessed by others of the 

 feathered race, of soaring aloft, and fleeing away like 

 the Dove, should they wish to seek for food, or repose, 

 in a distant country. These birds are the Ostrich, 

 the Emu, or the Cassowary, and one or two others 

 little known. 



Of these the Ostrich is the most common: its 



